To be an Atheist, or not to be an Atheist, that is the question

I do not 'believe'. I either know something to be true, I know it to be false, or I simply don't know.I don't have to have an answer for everything.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the word Atheist. I keep reading the writings of folks that describe themselves as atheists, but they speak favorably of different forms of belief. I don't understand. I have no choice but to tolerate believers, many of them are my friends. They may be able to function in our society and live in sync with those around them, but I don't consider them to be rational, sensible people. Am I wrong? "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." (sorry, a line from an old movie)I don't really do a lot of research on popular 'verbage', so maybe there's another label other than Atheist that would better describe my position on religion and life in general. (yes, I'm opening myself up to ridicule here)

Who am I? I am an animal, living within a large group of animals. I was born from the coupling of two animals of my kind, just like every other mammal on the planet. As our species' DNA-strand dictates, our evolution has been and will always be, for one singular purpose, to continue. That is the basic purpose of all life, to adapt and change to whatever degree necessary to insure the continuance of the species, to keep going. Yes, the meaning of life is to live.As we evolved over millions of years, developing hands with thumbs and morphing to walk upright, our brains continued to develop into efficient thinking machines that allowed us to consider, plan and construct, giving us an even better chance of survival. With every new generation, the improvements our DNA made to our bodies and thought-patterns allowed us to become more agile, more cunning, more capable of surviving our environment, insuring there would always be a next generation and enabling us to stand atop the food chain.

For me there is no creator, except possibly the Earth itself. I will go nowhere when I die but into the ground. While I am still here I will do my best, try not to hurt anyone, and enjoy as much of the world around me as I can. Unfortunately, I must spend a great deal of my time and energy trying to stay out of the way of those who tell themselves things that are not true. In my humble opinion, these others I am forced to deal with refuse to accept the reality of their existence. They would much rather play-act, and paint themselves into a pretty picture. They'd rather think of themselves as a special race of 'beings', the beloved children of an omnipotent entity, and plan for themselves an eternity of mind-melding with their imaginary friend in the sky. They prefer to spend their precious time here in the midst of an improvised stage production based on the stories of their ancient ancestors; complete with sets, music and wardrobe. It just all seems so silly to me.

I don't want to tell anyone else how to live, anymore than I want anyone telling me how to live. If I wasn't forced to deal with the results of what believers believe in so many different facets of our society, I wouldn't pay them any attention at all. I'd say, hey, whatever you want to do is cool man. But everywhere I turn there is a symbol, a saying, a structure, a bell, a story, a death, a rule, a war or some other manifestation of someone else's belief. Why is it I have to deal with what they think everyday, when what I think is literally nonexistent by comparison?